Judge Lets Boy, 11, Seek `Divorce` From Parents

ORLANDO -- A judge decided on Thursday that an 11-year-old boy can sue his parents to end his relationship with them.

The ruling may be the first of its kind in the nation.

After a four-hour closed hearing in juvenile court, Circuit Judge Thomas Kirk agreed with arguments from the boy`s lawyers that the Florida Constitution guarantees the courts will be open to all people, including children.

The ruling means the boy will have a trial this fall on whether he should live permanently with his natural mother or be adopted by the Lake County foster family he lives with now, said his attorney, Jerri Blair of Leesburg.

The case has drawn worldwide attention because it apparently is the first time a child has sued his parents for what amounts to a divorce. The boy wants to sever all legal ties to his mother so he can be adopted by a Lake County family with whom he has been living for the past nine months.

The boy says that for the last eight years he has bounced around from an abusive, alcoholic father to a mom who abandoned him, to several foster homes and a boys` ranch.

He has alleged that his parents abused, abandoned and neglected him, and that he has spent more time with his foster family in the last eight months than with his mother in the last eight years.

However, the first issue that had to be decided was whether the boy had the right to sue. Children normally do not have legal rights in custody cases. They are represented by the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and an appointed attorney known as a guardian ad litem.

Children`s rights groups called Kirk`s ruling a major victory.

``Hopefully this will be the first step of sweeping into the ashcan of history the old paternalistic legal mumbo-jumbo that says children have no rights,`` said Lewis Pitts, a lawyer for the Massachusetts-based National Child Rights Alliance. ``What this judge said is that children do have rights.``

But the lawyer for the boy`s natural mother said she feared the judge ``has opened a Pandora`s box`` that will lead to children suing their parents over every perceived wrong.

``There has to be a delineation between children and adults,`` said Orlando attorney Jane Carey. ``We`re changing the whole system here. (Children) are going to have the ability to sue over anything.``

Carey said she would appeal Kirk`s ruling to the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach, but likely not until after the trial.

The boy testified at the hearing, according to lawyers who were present. His foster father said the boy was excited about the ruling.

``He`s happy that he`s being allowed to do his own thing,`` the foster father said.

By suing, the boy in effect asked to supersede the role of HRS and be his own advocate.

HRS lawyer James Sawyer, who objected to the boy`s request, would not comment.

Kirk also granted a request from the boy`s foster parents that HRS not take the boy from their home while the case is pending unless there first is a court hearing. HRS could only take the boy without the hearing if there is an allegation of abuse or neglect.